


Wide Awake (While We're Dreaming)

by Miaou Jones (miaoujones)



Series: It's Anyone's Guess (What the Future Will Hold) [2]
Category: Free!
Genre: Canon Divergence, Friendship, Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-24
Updated: 2014-09-24
Packaged: 2018-02-18 14:43:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,475
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2352062
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/miaoujones/pseuds/Miaou%20Jones
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Haru gets back from Australia, he goes to see Makoto.<br/>(Rin doesn't feature in the summary but he does in the fic... sorry, Rin.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Wide Awake (While We're Dreaming)

**Author's Note:**

> In case the tags are unclear, this focuses on the friendship between Haru and Makoto, and between all three of them. There's also a little makorin.   
>  Posted before Episode 13 airs, ~~theoretically set between Episodes 12 and 13 or maybe a "missing scene" from Episode 13, and definitely destined to be jossed~~ jossed within 10 seconds! So let's call this one mild alternate timeline/canon divergent.   
>  Title borrowed from lyrics to "Future Fish."

Haru rings the doorbell and steps back. When he hears footsteps inside, he takes a deep breath, preparing himself—and then, as the door slides open, has to adjust his gaze downward.

"You're back!" Ran smiles up at him. "Did you bring us anything from Australia?"

"I did, but it's still packed up." He hopes it's not damaged; Rin hadn't exactly been gentle about the way he'd shoved the bags of Australian licorice, one for each twin, into his luggage. "I'll bring it over tomorrow, okay?"

"Okay." Her pout lingers a moment past than her words. Then it's gone as she says, "If you're looking for Makoto, he's in his room." She leaves the door open and starts off, pausing to look over her shoulder when Haru doesn't move. "Aren't you coming in?"

He's not sure if he should; he had counted on Makoto to be the one to come to the door. Maybe he should have called or texted or something first, like Rin had suggested, but Haru has never done anything but just show up here whenever he wants...

Anyhow, it won't do to just stand in the doorway so he enters and trades his shoes for the familiar slippers that he can't help feeling relieved to see still sitting in the entryway as if they belong there.

When he gets to Makoto's room, he pauses for another breath; takes another after that; and then, realizing breathing isn't going to help, knocks.

This time it is Makoto who opens the door. "Haru!" Eyes widening, his eyebrows arch up and stay there. "How was Australia?"

"I have my own dream now," Haru can't help blurting out. He didn't mean to smile but feels a small one tugging at the corners of his mouth.

Makoto's is bigger. "Haru!"

Haru's smile fades as he looks at Makoto's. "You—you can be happy for me?"

Makoto's brow furrows even as his smile lingers. "Of course! Why would—oh," he says softly, brow settling, "are you thinking about _that_?"

Haru nods. "I didn't know..."

Makoto's smile softens. "You didn't know if I was still upset about the fight?"

"I didn't know if you still wanted to be my friend."

"I'll always want to be your friend. It's okay for us to have fights now and then." Makoto doesn't laugh or smile; he says it seriously and Haru believes him.

Still—"I pushed you, though."

"Yeah." Makoto scratches the back of his neck. "That wasn't so good—"

"I'm sorry," Haru says right away, fists clenched so he doesn't reach out for Makoto's shirt or anything so foolish.

Makoto smiles at the end of his sigh. "I accept your apology."

"So then," Haru says, "will you come have lunch at my house?" Suddenly inspired, he adds, "I'll cook something that's not mackerel."

"Well," Makoto scratches his cheek, "you can cook mackerel, if you want. I want to eat as much of your mackerel as I can, while I can; there probably isn't anyone in Tokyo who can make it like you do."

The last sentence is just one of those things Makoto has liked to say to Haru for as long as they've known each other, so Haru skips over it and answers the first thing Makoto said, which is the important part. "Okay." 

They're putting on their shoes in the entranceway, when he thinks to add, "The only thing is, Rin is at my house right now—but I can tell him to leave."

"Ah, no, don't do that." Makoto finishes tying his laces and straightens up. "Actually, I guess I never told anyone this, but back in elementary school I thought this is how it was going to be: that we'd grow up and go have lunch at each other's houses all the time." 

Haru looks at his smile as Makoto opens the door, wondering how many dreams Makoto has inside himself that he's never told Haru, never told anyone. Haru wants to know those dreams. He wants to tell Makoto his, too. "It's not too late," he says aloud.

Makoto's brow arches smoothly as they start down the steps. "It's not, is it? Even if I have to go to Australia, or you and Rin have to come to Tokyo, or Rin and I have to go to wherever you are. We can still do that." His gaze is faraway but his smile is right here, and Haru lets himself look at it a moment longer.

Neither of them says anything more as they go down the steps, turn, and go up the adjacent set. Usually Makoto will come up with something to say in the silence but this time he doesn't. Every time Haru glances at him, though, he's smiling quietly; Haru doesn't even turn away as he smiles now, too.

"We're here," he says needlessly when they get to his house. He doesn't know why he said it, since it's obvious; it's the kind of thing Makoto would say when they were kids. 

He doesn't say anything else as they go in but Rin must have heard the door because he comes to greet them. "Hey," he calls even before he appears, "how'd it—" He stops when he sees them and breaks into a wide grin. "Makoto!"

Makoto smiles, too. "Hi, Rin."

Haru glances between their smiles as he heads for the living room. They come with him, folding themselves comfortably onto the floor. "So," Rin says to Makoto, an obvious attempt at casual in his tone, "have you had any interesting mail lately?"

"Like from my university? No—oh!" Makoto tries and mostly fails to suppress a grin. "Did you send me a postcard?"

Rin looks away but he can't hide his own grin. "Maybe." 

In fact, he mailed postcards every day they were there; Haru can guess Makoto will be getting more than one. 

He's distracted from his thoughts when he hears his name: "Did Haru tell you about the pool?"

"No." Makoto's brow arches as he looks at Haru. "We haven't really had a chance to talk about anything yet..." 

Haru meets his gaze. "We went to the aquatic center where the Australian national team practices. We got to swim in the same pool..." He feels himself smile as he remembers it at a molecular level, sees the smile reflected on Makoto's face. "That was where I found it."

"Your dream."

They look at each other and it feels good—not like things are back to the way they were before but that they're each moving forward and, as they do, they can still have moments like this, ones where they don't need words.

"That pool sounds amazing," Makoto says.

"It was," Haru says.

"I'll take you there when you visit me," Rin says.

Makoto turns to him. "Really?" He doesn't seem surprised that Rin is going back to Australia and Haru realizes he said it earlier, when he was talking about having lunch at one another's houses...

"Yeah. But only if you're going to swim in the same pool as the national team, not in the little public one." Cocking a slanted grin, Rin winks.

Even Haru can feel the intensity of the gaze as Makoto looks at Rin now. "I want to swim in that pool, Rin."

Rin's grin fades into something Haru can't read before a new smile dawns on his face.

Haru looks between them as they look at each other wordlessly. "I'll make lunch," he says, getting to his feet. Then, fueled by his new resolve, he takes a breath and turns back to look at them. "Are you two dating?"

Right away Rin says, "Yeah," and Makoto blushes; blushes and smiles like Haru has never seen him smile before. When Makoto doesn't say anything, Rin turns to look at him and, catching the smile, reflects it back.

"Okay," Haru says. As he starts for the kitchen, he glances back over his shoulder. "You two can make out if you want, while I cook the mackerel."

Makoto starts to say something but Rin latches onto his shirt. "Hey, he said we could, so—" He tugs Makoto closer into a kiss Haru misses as he faces forward again. 

As Haru turns out of the doorway, he hears Makoto say, "Have I gotten better at that?"

"Well, it's not that you were bad before...but I have to say, yeah."

"Good, because I've been practicing."

"What—who have you been practicing with?" Rin demands. 

There's a rustling and Haru almost looks back around the corner to make sure Rin doesn't have Makoto by the collar, until Makoto laughs. "No, nothing like that. Just with my hand."

After a pause, Rin says, "Are we still talking about kissing?"

Haru can practically hear the blush in Makoto's laugh this time. "Yes..."

"Show me."

"It's kind of weird, though..."

"Here." Another rustling as Rin shifts again. "Use my hand."

"Rin!" More laughter from Makoto. "That'll be even weirder!"

As Rin says he doesn't care about that, Haru pushes himself off the wall and continues on to the kitchen.

He's just finished marinating the fillets and is putting them in the broiler when Makoto comes in. "Rin is kind of passed out. He looks exhaused so I thought I'd let him sleep and come see how you're doing."

"I'm fine," Haru says, closing the broiler. "I slept on the plane, but I don't think Rin did." He doesn't say he thinks Rin was too excited about seeing Makoto again to sleep; Makoto can figure that out himself.

Makoto nods and watches as Haru checks the rice. "Can I help with anything? It's only, I think I'll have to learn how to cook for myself now..."

Mrs. Tachibana is an excellent cook but no one knows that better than Makoto. So, "I can teach you," Haru says. 

"Would you really do that?"

As he nods, Haru glances away from Makoto's open-mouthed smile. He wants Makoto to be able to ask him things like this and not be amazed when Haru wants to help. Maybe Makoto is like this with everyone; he seemed surprised that his boyfriend sent him a postcard, after all. 

Still, Haru wants to be a good friend. He's Makoto's best friend and he wants to be an even better one.

He looks back at Makoto. "Pick up that knife, then." When Makoto does, Haru goes to stand next to him, taking Makoto by the wrist, moving his fingers to show him how to hold it properly. "We'll start with cutting vegetables," he says, and goes to get some radishes for Makoto to practice on while the mackerel cooks.

As he gives Makoto instruction on how to hold the radish so as not to cut himself, the angle and pressure to use as he slices, Haru wonders how long Makoto has wanted to ask Haru to help him with this. He wonders how long Makoto has liked Rin—he hasn't noticed any difference in how Makoto acts around Rin and wonders if Makoto has liked him since he came back from Australia the first time, maybe even before then; if Makoto has had someone he liked this whole time, what else has he been keeping inside...

"What other secrets do you have?"

Blade touching the radish he's holding, Makoto pauses to look at Haru. When their eyes meet, he says, "Just those two. Now you know everything again."

Haru nods. "Okay."

As Makoto resumes slicing the radish, he says, "Rin wasn't a deliberate secret. It only just happened, the night before you left for Australia, so there was no chance to tell you." Haru nods again and, glancing over, Makoto grins. "So actually, it's thanks to you that we got together."

Haru turns his head but not before he sees Makoto's grin widen, which must mean he saw Haru's smile before Haru turned. "At least something good came out of going to Australia."

Makoto makes an inarticulate sound of agreement and adds, "You found your dream."

He sounds completely serious and sincere; when Haru gives him a sidelong glance, his expression matches his tone.

Haru bends at the knee and, with a twist, kicks Makoto in the back of the leg.

"Hey!" Makoto's brows arch up, his mouth coming open in an uncertain smile as he looks over. "What—"

"I mean you and Rin."

"Oh." Makoto's smile turns softer as his face colors.

"What about me?" Pushing back his hair with one hand and blinking, Rin comes into the kitchen. 

"Nothing," Makoto says, smiling and smiling.

Rin's gaze lingers long enough to get tangled with the smile; he blushes as he disentangles himself, looking off. "Anyhow," he says, face cooling, "what do you think of Haru's plans?"

"Oh," Makoto says; and Haru says, "I haven't told him yet."

Rin looks from one of them to the other. "Well," he says with a shake of his head, an indulgent smile, "you two always did go at your own pace. I guess you always will." Before either of them can respond he says, again looking between them, "So what are you making for lunch? Mackerel, obviously..."

"Broiled mackerel in marinade," Haru says.

"Haru's making it," Makoto adds. "I haven't done anything."

"What are these, then?" Rin picks up a slice of radish.

"Oh, that's just for practice—Rin!" 

But any protest Makoto might make is too late, because Rin pops the slice in his mouth, chews thoughtfully, swallows, and pronounces it "delicious."

"It's just a raw radish, though."

"It's a deliciously sliced raw radish," Rin corrects, grinning until Makoto grins back.

"If you two want to go back to the living room, I'll bring your lunch out in a few minutes," Haru says, turning to the oven so he can baste the mackerel one last time.

"What do you mean, 'your'?" Rin says. "It's _our_ lunch, right?"

"Well," Haru says without turning around, "since you only got together the night before we went to Australia, you haven't had your first date, right? So I made you something special."

"Haru~!"

Makoto sounded pretty happy about it, just as Haru thought he would, but Rin snorts. "No offense, but I'll be taking Makoto somewhere proper for our first date."

"Oh! Where are we going?"

"You'll see."

"That means you haven't thought of it yet," Makoto teases, but Haru thinks that's one of the things Rin stayed up thinking about on their flight back.

"Anyhow," Rin says as Haru finishes with the mackerel and turns to them again, "let's just have lunch together today, the three of us. Yeah?"

Makoto grins. "Yes!"

"Yes," Haru agrees as well. "And I'll tell you about the dream I have now, if you want to hear."

Makoto's smile flashes brighter; even through it's radiance, Haru can see Rin's; and, after a breath, a heartbeat, he adds his own shine to theirs.


End file.
